Talon Metals Corp. (TSX:TLO, OTC:TLOFF) CEO Henri van Rooyen will participate in the inaugural Critical Minerals Conference organized by the International Energy Agency (IEA) in Paris on September 28, the company announced.
The event gathers influential figures from government, industry, and civil society to deliberate on the mineral intensity of the transition to clean energy and responsible practices in mineral extraction and recycling.
According to Talon, van Rooyen is one of the few business leaders representing the mineral exploration sector at the Paris roundtable.
van Rooyen plans to speak to the importance of reshaping clean energy projects by fostering meaningful engagement with communities, establishing partnerships with organized labor, leveraging innovation, and adopting environmentally friendly approaches.
"Climate change is a threat to humanity,” van Rooyen said in a statement.
“To address this threat, society is transitioning to clean energy systems. Clean energy systems require vast amounts of new minerals to be extracted to achieve the scale required to reduce the risk of catastrophic climate change. That is just a fact. It's math. No institution has done a better job than the IEA to establish that society needs to responsibly extract new natural resources to address climate change.”
The Talon CEO emphasized the need to focus on "how", not "if."
“It doesn't have to be a choice between the environment and the necessary minerals to address climate change."
Other notable participants in the IEA Critical Mineral Conference include US Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm, South 32 CEO Graham Kerr, Canadian Minister of Natural Resources Jonathan Wilkinson, and Australian Minister for Resources Madeline King.
Talon's participation in the IEA's Critical Minerals Summit aligns with the recent release of the inaugural Critical Minerals Market Review, which forecasts the volume and types of minerals needed for clean energy systems such as wind, solar, hydrogen, and geothermal.
Talon, a TSX-listed base metals company, is in a joint venture with Rio Tinto on the high-grade Tamarack nickel-copper-cobalt project located in central Minnesota.